Adult Film Racket: Raj Kundra Earned Rs 6-8 Lakh Daily, Business Grew Rapidly During Lockdown: Mumbai Crime Branch
Following the investigations at least 12 arrests have been made so far, including Raj Kundra, his techie associate Ryan J. Tharpe, who were remanded to police custody till July 23 on Tuesday.
The Mumbai Police on Tuesday made a shocking revelation that arrested businessman Raj Kundra shared several details of how his business and companies operated the adult film racket. According to Mumbai Crime Branch, Kundra’s business flourished during the lockdown.
In a press conference, Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police (crime) said Kundra began this business only 18 months ago but it grew rapidly and he began earning in lakhs on a daily basis. Bharambe revealed that he forged a partnership with his UK-based brother-in-law Pradeep Bakshi's Kenrin Limited.
Bharambe said, "As he cannot upload these videos from India on an app called Hotshot, he provided the content to a foreign platform by sending videos via WeTransfer. All content was created in his office and sent to a London-based company called, Kenrin Limited, owned by his brother-in-law, Pradeep Bakshi."
The growth of the business led to Raj Kundra earning in lakhs daily. While he initially earned Rs 2-3 lakh per day, the amount later increased to Rs 6-8 lakh daily. "Documents of financial transactions run into thousands. We are analysing the details to get exact earnings. The same will be treated as proceeds of crime. So far, we have frozen Rs 7.5 crore in various accounts,” Bharambe said.
"The free to download app Hotshots was yanked off by both Apple and Google Playstore for the type of its content. The Mumbai Police have recovered incriminating evidences like several HotShot films, video clips, WhatsApp chats, etc. during the investigation," Bharambe told at the media gathering on Tuesday.
Following the investigations by the Police and later by the Crime Branch-CID and Property Cell, at least 12 arrests have been made so far, including Kundra, his techie associate Ryan J. Tharpe, who were remanded to police custody till July 23 by a Mumbai Magistrate Court on Tuesday.